My review is rather late since I wanted to read this one twice and give it time to be digested. Initially I was put off by the author’s swearing. Is it really necessary in a book? I don’t feel it added anything, it makes me cringe instead. On a side note, Thomas’ Don’t Salt My Game podcasts feature swearing too, maybe I’m just too old to appreciate it. If I look past that, and the suggestion of making a food dairy after the first few pages read (you don’t have to, but the suggestion that you do will stop some recovering dieter readers in their tracks), there is much to be gained from reading the entire book and thinking about your personal relationship with food. Lots of resources at the end the book too, for further reading and suggested Instagram accounts to follow. My thanks to Netgalley, publisher and author for a digital copy in exchange for my review.

Really insightful and eye opening, so much of thus resonated with me on a very personal level. The sort of book I’d like to read multiple times to really get it to sink in, even after the first couple of chapters I could feel my mindset changing towards food.

I will be buying copies of this amazing book for each and every one of my friends. I’m also seriously considering having spare copies about my person at all times so that if I am faced with unexpected diet talk in any social situation I can immediately whip it out and into the offending individual’s face. Bloody marvellous.

Laura is the real deal, and it doesn't surprise me that this book is fantastic as she is! The perfect antidote to the constant barrage of diet culture titles, Just Eat It is the book I've always wanted to shove into my friends' hands when they get down on their bodies and what they eat. And now I can! Laura's writing style is both informative & educational and completely charming and sweary - the perfect way to get science into my usually science-phobic brain.

I think we all have issues with eating and with our bodies - you can't grow up in this world and not - so I think everyone could get something from reading this book. It was definitely an eye-opener for me at times, and has genuinely practical tips of how to start unpicking some of those issues and get to a better place with food.

This book wasn't bad but it was a bit too self helpy for me and not enough of a pure science route. I liked Laura Thomas' writing and thought she had a clear and friendly tone but I don't want to spend my time reading a book doing an activity along with it. If this had a better balance and was less self help, then I would have liked the message that was in there as it was interesting and relevant.

Just Eat It looks at the psychology behind diets and the science behind our bodies knowing what they need best. It challenges fatphobia and reiterates that you don’t need to lose weight to be healthy or a good person. It shows us how much more we could get done if we freed up the brain space that constant dieting and focusing on our bodies takes up.

It’s a great book for anyone who wants to break free from feeling like they constantly need to be trying the next fad diet. It helps you unlearn all the fatphobic things we are constantly bombarded with due to diet culture and helps you learn to listen to your body.

My only negatives would be that it is a tad too long due to some parts being repeated and there are a lot of stats which I found my brain skimming over. However, the stats are great to actually be able to see how much diet culture affects the world. I also think this book is better off as a physical copy as opposed to the ebook I have. I think it would just be easier to flick through as and when you need it.

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Like most women I know, I've been on a diet for most of my life. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed food without doing a mental calculation of how many steps I would need to take to burn it off or what I would deprive myself of the next day to atone for any food "sins." This book was a revelation and has changed my attitude to food any my self image. I would highly recommend.

Absolutely not what I expected. There was too much science, far too many case studies, and too much of what I hoped I'd never have to do again - keep a food diary. Disappointed, as the adblurb suggested not having to worry about diets and psychobabble again.

Just Eat It is a fascinating insight into 'intuitive eating'. The book explains the psychology behind dieting - why actually guilt around food and restricting certain foods is more harmful than good - and the science to back up why we don't actually need diets i.e how your body is its own best signifier for what it needs (i.e hunger, thirst, cravings etc).

The book also deconstructs myths around dieting and critiques the diet and wellbeing industries, with a particular focus on social media, 'clean eating' and #fitspo bloggers. It deals with challenging fatphobia and how not everyone needs to lose weight or diet to be healthy. She ends the book by saying once we forget about diets and love ourselves we can get on with sorting out all the other problems in the world which I loved.

This book definitely changed the way I think about food - next time you're thinking of buying into the latest diet fad, pick this book up instead! You'll feel much better for it.

I struggled to read this book. I thought it would be insightful and funny. But was somewhat dull.
The front cover is eye catching but wouldn’t recommend.

An interesting book that is making me question my own eating habits and wondering how I can make myself happier and healthier in my choices. One thing is for sure: I am never dieting again!

Laura Thomas's JUST EAT IT is a refreshing look at diet and nutrition culture. It explores, from an honest and unflinching viewpoint, the ruts we (and when I say we, we are talking almost exclusively about women) get into when it comes to healthy eating, weight loss, and the constant guilt and shame we feel around food.

Laura dives into the very beginnings of what makes us feel we must eat better/lose weight/make better choices (delete as appropriate). This sort of regimented thought often stems from childhood, when certain foods become treats, or rewards, or something "naughty" only to be had at specific times. For me personally, it brought up memories of my mum's Rosemary Conley books, the grapefruit-and-cottage-cheese diet plans she'd pull out of the Daily Mail weekend supplement, and a plastic pig that sat in our fridge and oinked whenever anybody opened the door...

The major ethos of this book is to stop thinking about what we should be eating, how much, with what, at what time, and so on and so forth. The author explains how diet culture never changes, but simply transmutes into different fads (with current emphasis and suspicion cast on #fitspo, "wellness" and so-called clean eating), and how the new "miracle cure" is never really a miracle cure, but more likely a money-spinner. Instead, the author recommends what is known as "intuitive eating": enjoying your food, eating only as much as you need to and NEVER feeling guilty for eating what you fancy. This is explored through multiple exercises, thought plans, and lots of honest reflection. It's a chance for everyone to think about where their thoughts about food really stem from, and why.

I thought the message of this book was a really positive one and it really did give me a lot of food for thought (no pun intended). My only struggle with this book was that the author used a lot of "up-to-the-minute" phrases and words in a way that felt a little clunky and unnatural to me - almost like a "down with the kids" kind of thing - but it's quite possible that says more about me age-wise than it does about the author! I also found some of the sections a little repetitive and at times it felt like the book was just a little bit too long. However, I really approve of the overall message.

Easy to read and packed full of good advice. I'd definitely recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read this.

I read this in January when ‘dry january’ and ‘Veganuary’ were terms constantly bandied about. This book calls ‘bull shit!’ On diet culture and ‘nutri bollocks’. The book verified what I already knew about diets and behaviours around food, but for those who have lost their way or feeling the pressure of January to ‘detox’ (“ juices and cleanses and special supplements can’t ‘detox’ you, your liver and kidneys do that on their own. Every time you poop or pee - that’s a detox.) after Christmas it’s great. Laura takes you on a journey to k ow your body, listen to what it wants and needs in terms of nutrients and forget about how you ‘should’ feel after that hotdog/burger/doughnut.
There are lots of tests and challenges which I skipped over as I felt I didn’t needed them, but I imagine day are good to compound the learning.

We need more books like ‘Just Eat It’ rather than healthy eating, diet books.

This is more of a “dip into” book than a straight-off read and one to which I know I shall return whenever I feel myself veering towards starting yet another diet. The book is full of practical ideas to help us intuitively eat more sensibly. I don’t especially like the author’s style of writing, but I do like the way she thinks about food! Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for this honest review.

Just Eat It is a witty but practical take on diet culture and how to beat it with intuitive eating. Personally, there is more actual exercises than I could want or need but for someone who struggles more with food and diet I can see how they would be useful. Rather than this, I took from the book a general reminder to give your body what it wants rather than letting the diet culture messages in. A great tool in the fight against the bullshit women in particular face about food and body image with positive messages that we all need sometimes - that food is for enjoyment as well as nourishment. I've listened to Laura's podcast before and enjoyed it and this book lives up to her previous work!

I've been on many diets since I've been a child... Yes, since I've been a child, this sounds so horrible to me right now, that as a child I was encouraged to diet, to lose weight, to restrict my food, because my body was bigger than what my parents were willing to accept. Later on in my life, I was trying diets on my own, following plans found in glossy, 'health' magazines. I attended two different weight loss programs, and it all didn't end up well for me. I gradually developed an eating disorder, that was getting worse, and worse. I still battling it to this day and now I'm ready to start doing something about my eating, more than just not thinking about it, and not caring for what I'm eating, not because I was eating intuitively but because I was rebelling against my own body and expectations that are put on it.

The very personal note above is to present how important this book is for me, and for many people who have similar experiences. I read Fat Is a Feminist Issue by Susie Orbach that touches on the same topics and talks about intuitive eating, but Just Eat It is written in so much more friendly tone, it's easy to follow and entertaining, but at the same time delivering very powerful message - fuck the diet culture, stop spending all your energy on dieting. The delivery of the message is perfect for our times and culture, it is not a medical text saying how fatphobia and weight stigma impact our health, it delivers those messages in insta-friendly quotes, references modern pop-culture and feels like it was written by your friend. The thing I didn't like though is that after some time the book felt a bit too repetitive, some topics could be combined or shortened.

Just Eat It is the anti-diet book of our times ladies, and I encourage you all to read it!

I had mixed feelings about this book. The premise is sound. A qualified nutritionist is advising to escape 'diet mentality' and stop obsessing about food. Great! But there's rather a lot of swearing which makes it sound unprofessional and hinders the 'authority' of the author's voice, despite the PhD after her name.

She makes a lot of good points about the detrimental obsession over weight and food, but at times she seems to be saying that people who are overweight should just accept it as normal and make no effort to lose health-destroying obesity. I can see her advice being wonderful for those who obsess over 10-20 lbs of natural weight gain and for rejecting the rail-thin ideal of popular magazines, but someone who is 100-200 lbs overweight can't rely on 'intuitive eating' to lose enough to be a healthy weight! Diabetes and heart disease from excessive weight are a real thing!

Not to mention increased mobility and energy if someone does it a healthy way rather than through fad diets (don't even mention Keto to me! I equate it with Scientology.)

There is a chapter on 'gentle nutrition' and some extensive nutrition information near the end, but the author seems to assume that anyone who stops obsessing over food will naturally gravitate towards healthy eating. I don't believe that. I know people who would happily live on pizza and tacos forever and never touch another vegetable if they weren't paying attention to nutrition and quite honestly, I'm one of them. I spent my late teenage and early 20s years eating whatever I liked and the fruit/vegetable category didn't feature! The occasional banana maybe. And assuming I would EVER put vegetables on a pizza is just fantasy. I'm a meat feast girl and don't want my flavors diluted with nasty vegetables!

There are several mentions of Instagram and a specific hashtag that give me the impression that the author is assuming everybody has the same attitudes and assumptions about food and dieting as a particular group on that network. I'm not on instagram and don't know anyone among my real life family/friends/acquaintances/work colleagues who is, or who has the exact mindset as the author is working from.

I know a lot of people who consider themselves to be overweight to one degree or another and a few who have successfully lost weight through healthy diet programs. One thing we have in common is that given free reign to eat anything we want as the author suggests, certain Easter sweets in the stores right now would push those vegetables off our plates as far as our budgets could take it!

There are a lot of good nuggets of information in this book but I don't feel I can recommend it to anyone except those who keep obsessing over 10-20 lbs over the BMI charts. True those are outdated and imperfect, but someone seriously obese could easily see this as giving them permission to ignore the very real health dangers and put it down to stressing over food, as the author theorizes. Accepting your body shape isn't going to get you to fit into seats on planes or at entertainment venues and as much as I might agree that fat shaming and discrimination is wrong, it still happens.

I don't swallow that nature makes some people naturally fat in the extreme. Processed foods and high sugar content might have made it the new normal, but eating a nutritious diet will find the biological norm.

I've never one starred a book on Netgalley before but I think apart from the unprofessional delivery, the advice in this book is actually dangerous to people at risk of diabetes and heart disease through excessive weight.

I have read many, many diet and healthy eating books over the years and found Just Eat It a refreshing change. Firstly, Laura Thomas' warm and engaging style makes the book feel like a 'friend ' and not a lecture about all the things I have been doing wrong. The book focuses on Intuitive Eating and how to listen to your body's needs rather than focusing on what other people think. It is detailed with lots of science -based facts but doesn't feel like a chore to read.
It is definitely a book I will come back to and I plan to get a hard copy so I can fully appreciate the charts etc which I could not see due to formatting issues.

This book helped me reflect on how I use the tropes of 'Diet Culture' to criticise myself. I now can see comments and campaigns that capitalise on this. If you want to face your relationship with food and dieting, and shift your way of seeing it - this is the book for you. The author's prose reminds you to be gentle with yourself and take small steps towards self-acceptance so that you can take up space in the world with confidence.